Spinach, bell pepper patties (No Potatoes/Eggs) – Hara Bhara Kababs

I love all things potato! I am sure there are very few people who don’t 🙂 But potato is really starchy and so I always try to avoid it in my cooking. Since I started trying to be creative in my cooking, I don’t think I miss out on those potato dishes a lot 🙂 The only dishes where I missed it were those which called for potato to bind all the good stuff together! Yeah, burgers and patties! I don’t eat eggs and I don’t like cheese either, otherwise these would have been really great to use in patties 🙁

Recently I posted a recipe where I used cooked lentils as a binding base. Check out this post. In this recipe I am using chickpea flour to serve the same purpose. This recipe works really well with frozen spinach, I am not sure about fresh ones though. These patties hold up really well and can be had as is or served in burgers. These patties have a nice outer crust because they have a coating of semolina. They are quite soft on the inside with the green peppers adding a whole ton of texture to the filling.

Ingredients

350 grams frozen spinach

1/2 medium green bell pepper

1/2 cup chickpea flour or besan

Salt to taste

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

1 tsp cumin powder

1/2 tsp coriander powder

1/4 tsp raw mango powder or amchur powder

a big pinch of asafetida or hing

2 tbsp semolina (rava)

2-3 tsp oil

Preparation Time: 10 min

Cooking Time: 10 min

Servings: 7-8 cutlets/patties

Method

Chop the pepper finely. Let the spinach come to room temperature. Then squeeze out all the water.

Take a saucepan. Add the chickpea flour and roast it on low heat till you get a good aroma. Be careful as the flour can burn quickly.

Add the spinach and peppers to a large mixing bowl. At this point there should not be a lot of water in the veggies. Add the roasted chickpea flour, salt, chilli powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, amchur powder and hing. Mix well.

Shape the mixture into patties. Add the semolina to a plate. Roll the patties in semolina to coat well on two sides.

Heat a non stick skillet. Spread 1 tsp oil on it. Place 2 or 3 patties (or as many as you can fit!) on it. Let it cook well on one side. Just before flipping, smear some oil on the tops of the patties and then flip it. Cook this side too. Try to avoid flipping too much.